Serpicos blog

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Racial profiling hits an all time high in Sanford Florida or should one say low.

Eating Skittles while Black.

Are the Sanford Police guilty of corruption, misfeasance, malfeasance, incompetence, cover up or plain indifference to the murder of an African-American youth?

Police claim, they can find no contradiction to Zimmerman's self-defence claim. Do they want to, how hard did they look?

Zimmerman carrying a 9mm and outweighing the youth by eighty pounds.

Are the Police so incompetent, they cannot distinguish between the voice of the victim crying for help and his assailant?

where are the experts in this case while a killer walks free?

Why was Zimmerman stalking an innocent youth even after being told by the 911 dispatcher to back off?

Has our system of justice been so corroded that an African American youth innocently walking home, feeling secure, enjoying some candy in a gated community after visiting his father can be stalked by an overzealous, self appointed vigilante, who creates the very scenario he (zimmerman) alleges he was trying to prevent?

In any civilized society, I am sure the Florida Stand Your Ground Law, does not, should not condone the cowardly, racist profiling of an innocent unarmed African American youth,

Stalking him and wantonly taking his life.

Zimmerman, armed was stalking Trayvon, the youth posed no threat to his assailant or the community.

By his own words zimmerman created his own illusion. "This guy looks like he is up to no good or he's on drugs or something (yes, skittles and tea) it's raining he is just walking around looking about" (AND HE IS BLACK) "THESE------- COONS"

If this is not racist profiling, what is?

There is a Destructive culture at work in America, a culture attempting to exonerate the wrongdoer who is shielded under the cloak of some authority.

Be it Military, Police or vigilante, lest it may reflect a flawed system of Justice.

An image to be protected at any cost, the illusion, delusion of infallibility and superiority.

The truth of the matter may be, we are operating under a flawed system of Justice, every time we exonerate the wrongdoer with no regard for justice for the victims.

In so doing our system of Justice becomes a party to the injustice itself.

To be truly effective, a system of Justice must be equitable, lead by example and not engage in divisive rhetoric.

We must not blame the laws but rather the improper implementation, interpretation and enforcement of said laws.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Not only is our government spying on us from every quarter, we lack a systym of journalism with integrity, keeping us busy with nit picking issues.

OBAMAGATE

Racism, ego or class struggle

At the beginning of the Obama-McCain campaign, I sent an e-mail to Tavis Smiley. He was to host the presidential debate between the candidates. I asked Mr. Smiley if he would ask the candidates a question from me as a retired police detective and expert on the subject of police corruption. I wanted to know what either of the candidates planned to do about police/community relations. Neither he nor his staff found my question worthy of neither mention nor my request warranting a response.When a white policeman recently shot and killed Omar Edwards, a black police officer in civilian clothes, people asked if the shooting was racially motivated. A young, dedicated police officer last his life. To my knowledge Mr. Obama chose to remain silent.When Henry Gates, a prominent black Harvard professor had difficulty opening the door to his home, a concerned citizen notified the police of a possible burglary in progress. The responding officer, Sgt. James Crowley, followed proper police procedure. The police report indicates that Mr. Gates became indignant and that the officer was subjecting him to this treatment only because he was a black man in America. When Crowley asked Gates to come outside, he replied, “I’ll talk to your mama outside.”Can we really believe that if the police were responding to a similar situation and the subject was white that the police would not follow the same procedure and ask the subject to identify himself?Phillip Martin, former NCAR race relations correspondent and friend of Gates also living in Cambridge said the president acted instinctively. Martin also had occasion to deal with the Cambridge police. When his burglar alarm went off accidentally he was confronted by police. He cooperated fully, providing the police with his id and the situation was diffused.

Mr. Gates however chose to pull the race card. Mr. Gates not only pulled the race card, he pulled the privilege card by providing his Harvard id card, telling officer Crowley, “You don’t know who you’re messing with” while attempting to reach the Cambridge chief of police by phone.The key phrase in this dispute is Harvard professor. As if a professor is entitled to special privileges under the law..Police officers who risk their lives every day should not be subject to threats and abuse when they are just doing their job. Any law abiding citizen, let alone a Harvard professor, should know this.

There may be a question of racism, but on whose part?

In this case the situation escalated. Mr. Gates was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct charges that were later dropped when cooler minds prevailed. If the situation could not have been averted, it should have at least been minimized. But Mr. Gates, a member of the Harvard Old Boy’s Club reached out to his cronies for support, one being the President of the united States. With the economy in shambles, mr. Obama found the time to intercede, weighing in on a racial issue that was so non-racial that it was ridiculous. The Gates case has become the first significant racial issue created by Mr. Obama since becoming the nation’s first African-American president.

The president was personally outraged by the arrest of his Harvard crony but to my knowledge silent on the death of officer omar Edwards. Another club member to weigh in was the president of Harvard himself, feeling obliged to come to the rescue of Mr. Gates. Perhaps officer Crowley who has “a fine track record on racial sensitivity” could have been more tolerant, but he chose to arrest him.

Professor Gates, a prominent black scholar, could have been more cooperative, but the President of the United States should have known better than to have gotten drawn into a local-level issue, commenting that the police acted stupidly.

The police were not as the media, stoking the fire as usual, suggest breaking into a home in a prominently white neighborhood. Rather, they were simply investigating a report that a possible burglary was in progress. The police would have responded no matter what the color of the suspect.

I was honored to lecture at Harvard Law School on the subject of integrity, and quite frankly, I saw no difference between a Harvard faculty or a City College faculty other an elitist attitude.

Yes, I voted for Obama. Yes, African-Americans are sensitive to racial issues as are white Americans. We all have our own moods, emotions and frustrations, but I expected more from the leader of the free world than to get involved in a cronies personal dispute.But it seems as exemplified in this case, that the problems we face in America go far beyond race to an issue of class and privilege. There are black Americans wrongfully accused languishing on death row. Mr. Obama I would venture to say would never have gotten into this self=created national drama if Mr. Gates were the average hard-working class laborer, white or black.May I suggest that Mr. Obama begin by taking his own advice, “instead of flinging accusations,” “be a little more reflective in terms of what we can do to contribute to more unity,” before crying wolf.